Wesmount Appeal

On Tuesday and Wednesday the Public Enquiry for the Westmount Application Appeals was held. They were two very long days of intense concentration. The Council and the Rule 6 parties put their cases very well and the residents and parish councillors did very very well in cross examination from an incredibly bright lawyer.

I addressed the Appeal last of all and spoke about common sense and how even after some of the local materials had been incorporated and some small architectural devices had been employed on the design of the houses they still didn't look like anything else in Loose. Surely when we started out the Appeal by saying that we need to protect the Rural Character of the village it is common sense that an 'Executive close' such as this is inappropriate.

I also spoke of ragstone and how the village is very proud of its most famous export. It is part of the fabric and the feel of the village and yet is not included as a material in either application. Indeed one of the expert witnesses did say that incorporating ragstone would mean a total redesign of the scheme - how then can it be considered sympathetic to Loose.

I picked up on the lack of public consultation as well. One expert witness said that Antler take consulting the community seriously and that they had long consultations with the planning officers - the witness went on to say that the planning officers were the representatives of the local community!!!! I had to pull them up on this. As democratically elected Councillors the representatives of the local community are myself at Ward level and the Parish Councillors at Parish level and the consultation we received was woeful at best and negligent at worst.

How can Antler say in a press article that the had taken as many people's views and wishes into account as they could. In a village of 120 people nearly 100 people turned out at a protest against the plans!

unfortunately with all the evidence and fantastic cross examination from our side we ran over and will reconvene on 4th August for the closing. The Inspector will then make his decision.

Watch this space.